[Manifesting schizophrenic attacks in female adolescents].

Authors have analyzed pre-manifesting symptoms as well as initial and manifesting stages of the disease on the basis of examination of 70 patients, aged 15-17 years. Schizoid and psychastenic types dominated in the premorbid structure of personality. The following variants of the initial stage were singled out: affective, psychopathic-like, with overvalued disorders, neurotic-like, with the predomination of simplex-syndrome, clinically polymorphic. Manifesting schizophrenic attacks in female adolescents were determined by affective-delusive, hallucinatory-delusive, oneiroid-catatonic and polymorphic syndromes. The attack-like course was found in most of cases. The typological similarity of psychotic states studied with those of adult schizophrenic patients was noted.

[A role of sex in the development of manifesting schizophrenic psychoses in adolescents].

To study an effect of sex on symptoms and course of schizophrenia, we have compared two groups (n=70) of adolescents of both sexes with manifesting schizophrenic psychoses. Between-group differences in the family history of schizophrenia, premorbid functioning, typology and duration of initial and manifesting stages of the attack, dynamics of psychosis, frequency of cognitive disorders have been revealed. These differences may predict a benign course of schizophrenic psychosis in girls as compared to boys.

[Changes of the level of serum antibodies to neuroantigens in patients with schizophrenia during the treatment].

The level of antibodies (AT) to neuroantigens (nerve growth factor and basic myelin protein) has been studied in the serum of 80 patients with schizophrenia, attack-like type, (ICD-10 items F20.01-02) during the treatment with psychotropic drugs. Therapeutic effectiveness has been measured clinically and with the PANSS. It has been shown that the autoimmune component is present during the acute episode of schizophrenia in about 30% of cases. No statistically significant differences have been found in the mean values of AT before and after the treatment however the dynamics of their changes has been closely related with the results of therapy: the decrease of AT level during the therapy is a predictive factor for good therapeutical remission; on the contrary, the increase of this level may be considered as an unfavorable prognostic factor.

[Serum immunological markers as predictors of effectiveness of antipsychotic therapy in patients with schizophrenia].

Serum immunological parameters - activity of leukocyte elastase (LE) and a1-proteinase inhibitor (a1-PI), content of C-reactive protein, von Willebrand factor, interleukin 8 as well as a level of autoantibodies to neuroantigens (nerve growth factor and basic myelin protein) were studied in patients with schizophrenia during their treatment with psychotropic drugs. All parameters studied differed in the groups of patients and controls. However, the pronounced dynamics was found only for LE and a1-PI activity. After the therapeutic course, the reduction of LE activity accompanied by the increase of a1-PI activity was observed. The correlation study between the biological parameters during disease exacerbation and therapeutic effectiveness assessed by the PANSS scores revealed that activity of LE and a1-PI may be considered as a prognostic marker of therapeutic efficacy, i.e. the high enzyme activity at the moment of maximal activity of the process was predictive of good therapeutic response.